We recognise that there is a lot of useful material currently contained within the Standards for the dental team, and elsewhere, that does not meet the threshold for formal guidance, but is nonetheless a useful resource for professionals. We believe that an effective model for standards and providing guidance should include support for dental professionals on key topics and is responsive to issues that arise in dentistry.
In our model framework we suggest that instead of listing this information as a set of ‘rules’, we foster an ongoing dialogue of communication with professionals, using engaging formats. We believe the best way to do this is to provide supporting material on a separate section on our website, which would include information on a variety of topics in the form of blogs, videos, infographics, and case studies.
These materials can be considered as part of daily practice and applied in a way which is relevant to the context and supports dental professionals to deliver quality care in the spirit of the principles. As well as issuing these materials ourselves, we can work to develop them in partnership with dental professionals and their representative bodies, who hold a lot of knowledge, skills, and experience that can be passed on to other professionals. This reflects our ambition to support continuous improvement, learning and reflection.
These materials would contain content on key topics such as communication, record keeping, and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI).The GDC will not always be the right organisation to produce these materials, so we would look to partner with others and to signpost to specific external guidance, such as that provided by the Advertising Standards Authority.